CRITICAL POINT

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does critical point mean? 

• CRITICAL POINT (noun)
  The noun CRITICAL POINT has 1 sense:

1. a crisis situation or point in time when a critical decision must be made

  Familiarity information: CRITICAL POINT used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CRITICAL POINT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A crisis situation or point in time when a critical decision must be made

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

critical point; crossroads; juncture

Context example:

he must be made to realize that the company stands at a critical point

Hypernyms ("critical point" is a kind of...):

crisis (an unstable situation of extreme danger or difficulty)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "critical point"):

criticality (a critical state; especially the point at which a nuclear reaction is self-sustaining)

 Context examples 

That was the critical point, when we found that bile acids can control the expression of CXCL16.

(Study finds gut microbiome can control antitumor immune function in liver, National Institutes of Health)

Co-author of the study, Franz Holker of the Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries in Berlin, said things are at the critical point.

(Study: Earth’s Night Skies Getting Brighter, VOA)

The moveable covers enable temperatures to be monitored throughout the process, which, during the first stage, rise above the critical point of 55 degrees—the temperature necessary for the organic matter present in the sludge to be sterilised.

(Scientists validate a new technology that transforms sewage sludge into fertilizer more efficiently, University of Granada)